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mainly I use a Cubase/Gigastudio combi and lot of orchestral samples like VSL and the older siedlacek libs and some other stuff.

It is working, but I would give my right arm to have a real orchestra to play my stuff. Well, who would not?

Speaking of samples... I have Native Instruments Kontakt Player Gold (for Sibelius 3) and Native Instrtuments Komplete 2 (Kompakt, Kontkat, Intakt, etc..) but this has limited samples. Does anyone know of a sample set with some nice flutes (not solo sort of thing, something that I could use more aggressively). Thanks

Oh, I use Sibelius 3 for writing and some sample outputting, and Cubase SX 2 for Final Output, touching up, volume leveling, VST Instruments, etc..

LOL I use Sibelius 3 (Kontakt Silver). I feel poor.

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Well, for all of you who are working mainly with notation progs like Sibelius, I hardly recommend to get "Garritans Personal Orchestra". It's really a gem. Espacially for it's price (around 250 ?, don't now how much in dollar). The sounds are remarkable good and it has oem versions of cubase and overture notation prog onboard.

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I use both EWQLSO Silver and Gold. I chose Silver to start with last summer over GPO because the brass sound infinitely better on Silver. GPO brass remind me of the anemic sounds from my 15 year old Proteus 2 orchestral mod. QLSO series are better suited to Hollywood film score type situations. Their samples have an epic sound. The brass and percussion are especially good. The strings are a little wonky on Silver for my tastes, but QLSO are releasing "Pro" versions of each edition that ostensibly double the amount of sounds/articulations. Should be very cool.

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I am having a devil of a time figuring out how to master my recorded scores, very often my stuff sounds muddy and distant. Yet some of the music posted here sounds clean and clear. I realised my mistake in the past was that I was using too much reverb to disguise my cr*p sample set . But I think I have rectified this problem by buying some new samples and using GigaPulse for the reverb. I've got two scores that I have done so far to show you guys.

The first one I wrote for my brothers student film, recorded with the Bulgarian Philharmonic orchestra and choir:

I processed the bond piece with a bit of EQ?ing, but this has resulted in some clipping. I tell you it?s a right game getting the volume levels right without it clipping. It?s not just a case of setting your recording level at the right setting and there you go. You then have to fiddle around with the EQ settings to bring out the best in the piece.

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This is where the maximum volume level in the score exceeds 0db (the maximum level you can record your music at), resulting in nasty static noise in the loud parts of your piece. The simple answer should be to just reduce the recording volume. But then this results in the quiet parts becoming too quiet. You then have to boost the levels on these parts to balance the score out (Using compression), but then you loose all the dynamic volume changes in your composition.

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Here is a little video from a recording sessions done at Angel Studio in London with the London Philarmonia Orchestra. I wrote this music, with ten other pieces in a romantic style, for a library CD edited by Kosinus.

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I am having a devil of a time figuring out how to master my recorded scores, very often my stuff sounds muddy and distant. Yet some of the music posted here sounds clean and clear. I realised my mistake in the past was that I was using too much reverb to disguise my cr*p sample set . But I think I have rectified this problem by buying some new samples and using GigaPulse for the reverb. I've got two scores that I have done so far to show you guys.

The first one I wrote for my brothers student film, recorded with the Bulgarian Philharmonic orchestra and choir:

I processed the bond piece with a bit of EQ?ing, but this has resulted in some clipping. I tell you it?s a right game getting the volume levels right without it clipping. It?s not just a case of setting your recording level at the right setting and there you go. You then have to fiddle around with the EQ settings to bring out the best in the piece.

Any helpful suggestions or pointers would be appreciated.

I love the bond in action -- What sample set is that? It sounds amazing -- Very Hollywood

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Here is a little video from a recording sessions done at Angel Studio in London with the London Philarmonia Orchestra. I wrote this music, with ten other pieces in a romantic style, for a library CD edited by Kosinus.

Very nice, I couldn't hope to bring out that level of expression in my string samples. It goes to show that samples cannot compete with a real live orchestra.

I've just been listening to the other pieces on your website and I especially like the theme of Zorro piece. I like the very expressive trumpet. Clearly you are a pro who knows the ropes. Have you got any pointers on solving my Mastering dilemma?

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Here is a little video from a recording sessions done at Angel Studio in London with the London Philarmonia Orchestra. I wrote this music, with ten other pieces in a romantic style, for a library CD edited by Kosinus.

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Does Garritan Personal Orchestra work directly with Sibelius like Kontakt?

jep, it does work fine with Sibelius. But you should have a fast pc and at least 1 Gb Ram. I haven't worked with the EWQL libs. I use Opus 1 from VSL. In combi with some older samples I have (some of them have more expression in the woodwinds and strings then VSL) and the GPO...well, it works.

The whole sampling thing is a work of combination of different soundsets from diff. libs and then layering together.

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The theme/motive introduced in the piano introduction represents this extremely lonely, depressed and partially insane guy who lives in a belltower and has to ring the bell for a living. He desperately tries to forget about his horrid life by imagining and dreaming away his time, so his theme manifests itself along the way, acting both as a dour reminder of who he really is, and morphed to represent his creativity to pass the time, and whatever characters he might be imagining himself as. Essentially the line between imagination and reality is blurred. You decide whether a particular bar is desperation, or imagined swashbuckling drama. I can only describe the structure of this piece as deliberately plodding, uncertain in direction, occasionally surprising. But the ending is of course back to reality. The tugging of the bell ropes during the course of the six minutes is represented by the twin repeated chords in the left-hand of the piano intro, and wherever that sort of syncopated/off-beat two-note/chord accompaniment manifests itself along the way, as he becomes imaginative.

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Everything before the guitar rocks on in is SUBLIME, Chris!!! I wish the following snare/percussion part was more authentic lol. Doesn't do it justice. Please extend this baby!

Thanks When the piece is finished, it will be about a minute longer (or slightly more). The music is for the final scene and credits of the film being made, and the credits begin where the drums&bass begin the accompaniment to the theme, so I'm gonna extend the end to allow for an appropriate credits running time.

Yes, I know, the midi drums are crap. I'm trying to find some good samples for that, or maybe even record a real drumset. There's still much time before the film is finished, so I have enough time to work on the music

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Today I did a short Titles music for a space shooter game Marian is currently programming, he considered it a bit too depressing for the beginning of the game, so I'm gonna try a more uplifting piece for that part...